Recommended Commentary: White Evangelicals, U.S. Culture of Violence, "Pro-Life" Politics, Intersectionality, Etc.

All of this rhetoric about white evangelical Protestantism “losing its way” makes me wonder what you think white evangelical Protestants did during the civil rights movement, each wave of feminism, and this era of #blacklivesmatter.

— Broderick Greer (@BroderickGreer) March 7, 2018

I'm now over the hump of having my bad tooth removed and am thankfully on the mend. Because I've been distracted by all of that, I haven't been able to follow the news as systematically as I usually try to do — but I still do have bits and pieces of commentary from recent days to share with you today, commentary on many different topics that interest us here, which I think is worth sharing. I hope you'll agree. Here goes:

Frank Cocozzelli on Ryan's Aquinian Epiphany: So Much Smoke and Mirrors

At Talk to Action, Frank Cocozzelli has just reposted a piece he wrote last May on Paul Ryan's p-r driven Aquinian epiphany in the weeks leading up to his appearance at a debate on economic issues at Georgetown this past April.  As Frank's detailed chronology of Ryan's faux epiphany reminds me, Ryan has had ample help in his repackaging project from "centrist" beltway commentators, who will say and do anything to promote powerful folks who tack right and give the appearance of being rising stars--no matter how extreme their tacking.  We can look for much more of this mainstream media repackaging of Ryan in days to come--Ryan the nice guy, Ryan just one of the folks, Ryan the intellectual (!), Ryan the exemplar of the work ethic who pulled himself up by his bootstraps, Ryan the exemplar of Catholic values.

Droppings from the Catholic Birdcage: Paul Ryan and "Give Me Thomas Aquinas"

After Paul Ryan discovered that there was a downside to his infatuation with Ayn Rand (a radical individualist who also happens to have been a pro-choice atheist), he then informed the world that he's Thomas Aquinas all the way, all the time.  In a speech to a group of Rand devotees in 2005, Ryan said,